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Opponents of a ban on single-use plastic bags in grocery stores have qualified a referendum on the law, delaying its July 1 effective date until voters act on the measure in November 2016, the California secretary of state’s office said Tuesday. The trade group American Progressive Bag Alliance submitted more than 800,000 signatures on petitions for the referendum, and a random sample count by elections officials projected that they include at least 110% of the 504,760 signatures needed to put the measure on the ballot. “California voters will now have the chance to vote down a terrible law that, if implemented, would kill 2,000 local manufacturing jobs and funnel obscene...

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Opponents of a ban on single-use plastic bags in grocery stores have qualified a referendum on the law, delaying its July 1 effective date until voters act on the measure in November 2016, the California secretary of state’s office said Tuesday.
The...

Antonio Villaraigosa’s decision not to run for the U.S. Senate next year has already become a hot topic of discussion at a Wine Country policy retreat by the California Legislative Latino Caucus.
The former mayor of Los Angeles is scheduled to have a...

California Atty. Gen. Kamala D. Harris, so far the only major candidate to have entered the race for Barbara Boxer’s U.S. Senate seat, starts the campaign with 46% of likely voters saying they would be inclined to support her, according to a new...

Facing few serious challenges for statewide posts in last year's election, many California politicians were free to make financial decisions with an eye toward the future, final campaign reports show.
John Chiang had token opposition in his race for...

Democrat Alex Padilla significantly outspent Republican Pete Peterson on his way to narrowly winning the race for California secretary of state in the November election, according to final campaign finance reports filed Monday.
Padilla, a...

Maybe Antonio Villaraigosa, the former Los Angeles mayor, has edged toward a run for the newly open U.S. Senate seat in 2016 for all the reasons he offered last weekend: that Californians are struggling to make ends meet and that the "needs of the...

FBI agents are asking questions about an environmental bill carried by Senate President Pro Tem Kevin De Leon (D-Los Angeles) in 2013 after The Times reported on controversy surrounding the measure, a source familiar with the inquiry said Tuesday.
The...

In yet another shakeup in the state Senate, new President Pro Tem Kevin De Leon (D-Los Angeles) has removed the top staff from a Senate committee that last session blocked one of his priority bills.
De Leon, who took over leadership of the Senate in...

After weeks of vote tallying, political neophyte Patty Lopez has unseated incumbent Assemblyman Raul Bocanegra, a fellow Democrat, in an upset that has sent shock waves beyond their San Fernando Valley district.
Lopez, a relative unknown, was universally...

The record-low voter turnout in California's June primary has added urgency to the contest for the state's top elections post.
The two candidates — Republican Pete Peterson, the director of a public policy think tank, and Democratic state Sen. Alex...

Vice President Joe Biden arrived in Southern California on Friday to help Democrats in tight races as the campaign season headed into the final weekend before Tuesday's election.
Biden was scheduled to attend a private event for the Democratic National...

Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown is coasting to a historic fourth term with record-high approval ratings, and the ballot measures that he has made the centerpiece of his reelection bid — a water bond and a rainy-day fund — are also supported by a majority of...

Democrats in California have signed up tens of thousands of new voters in recent months, but a big question in Tuesday's election is whether enough of them will cast ballots to stave off erosion of the party's dominance in the state.
The new voters, many...

California voters decisively elected Gov. Jerry Brown to a historic fourth term Tuesday, a rare bright spot for Democrats on a night when Republicans celebrated huge victories in the rest of the nation.
Brown handily defeated GOP challenger Neel Kashkari...

When political neophyte Pete Peterson was thinking about running for California secretary of state, his mentor urged him on with surfer logic: "Sometimes you need to be the guy in the water when the wave hits."
The mentor was former Secretary...

California Republicans scored a rare victory in Tuesday's election by denying Democrats a two-thirds legislative supermajority that would consign GOP lawmakers to virtual irrelevance in the state Capitol.
For a party sharply diminished by two decades...

Here's an ironclad guarantee: California's next state election will be tons more interesting than our just-concluded snoozer.
Make that the next two elections — in 2016 and 2018.
For starters, we'll be electing a new president in 2016. And...

The state’s powerful prison guard union has agreed to pay $5,500 in fines for failing to properly disclose nearly $25,000 in gifts it provided to state lawmakers during a three-year period.
The gifts include lodging, meals, wine and spa bags for state...

Who could have imagined? The California controller contest is more intriguing than the slow-motion race for governor.
Gov. Jerry Brown isn't really campaigning, and he's jogging far ahead of Republican Neel Kashkari, even if the Democrat's lead has...

California will have the nation's first statewide ban on disposable plastic bags under a measure signed Tuesday by Gov. Jerry Brown, who also expanded gun controls and personal privacy protections in an eclectic final flurry of bill signings for the year....